A Sentence On Page 176

I came across a disturbing sentence when I reached page 176. At this point in the book, both towers had been struck by planes, thousands of people below the crash zones had already evacuated, and firefighters were slowly making their way to try to rescue people on the top floors. As they progressed floor by floor, the firefighters checked each evacuated floor to make sure everyone had left. The book then states,

"Most of the floors were empty, except for stragglers who seemed incapable of leaving their computers."

I surely hope these were people who were e-mailing their loved ones and not people who could not pull themselves away from their jobs; workaholics who could not separate themselves from their position title. It boggles my mind to imagine that a person could be so foolish.

--"Man's origin is dust and his end is unto dust. He earns his bread at the risk of his life..."- from the Machzor

11 Comments:

I surely hope these were people who were e-mailing their loved ones and not people who could not pull themselves away from their jobs...

"I surely hope" may be a form of Tefillas Shav - a prayer in vain - as whatever happened, happened already. Secondly, if they were indeed e-mailing loved ones instead of running for their lives, aren't they still addicted somewhat to their computers???

Yitz: I wrote "I surely hope" in an order to dan l'kaf zechus. I was not there to see this people so I cannot say 100% that what they were doing was wrong. It only appears to me from this sentence that indeed they were very foolish.

It could be that they were simply emailing, as you mentioned. Or it could be they didn't realize just how much danger they were in and thought that their superiors would let them have it for abandoning their posts.

Or, it could be that in such a stressful situation, they simply weren't thinking rationaly.

Broolynwolf: Thanks again for the recommendation. I thought the book was excellent and recommended it to both my mom and dad. My dad just finished it and thought it was very well written and my mother is reading it now and thinks that it is extremely interesting.